37 Week Appointment

Nothing too exciting to tell today. I am still dilated 1 cm, 60% effaced (cervix thinning out) and his head is very low. The doctor told me when my body decides to go into labor it won't take very long. That's the second person to tell me that. Part of me wishes I would have been dilated a little more but the other part of me tells me that I'm only 37 weeks and really shouldn't be dilating. At least I'm doing something. I'm starting to feel like an elephant...not it size but in gestation! I don't remember not being pregnant. I'll update again after my next appointment unless he decides to make his debut before then. Let the contractions continue.....

All About Ethan

He likes to take his shirt by himself and get it stuck on his head.

At war with the Play-Doh.



It's sticker boy! He loves to put stickers all over himself and not on the pages of the books.

He's obsessed with washing his hands. I keep Bath and Body Works in business.

This is him fake pouting.


I thought I would make a post all about Ethan since there's been so much baby talk lately. We can't forget my first baby! I can't believe he is almost 3 years old. It really does go by so fast. He is so busy and talks so much. Every day he asks me if he can go to school. If it's not a school day and I tell him no then his next question is "can I go to Nana's ?" When I tell him no again, he has to list every family member on Mondo's side and mine and he wants to know what they are all doing at the time (working, in school, etc). He probably thinks a lot of you work too much and that everyone goes to bed by 8pm (if the questioning starts after 8pm I always tell him everyone is going night-night). He's getting into sports a lot now. He likes to watch football with Daddy. He watches the TV and gets into position with them before a play then runs and says "touchdown!" It's too cute. He also loves baseball. He even lifts his leg when he throws. He's got quite an arm too...but we're still working on catching. He is still way into Spiderman for some unknown reason. He will wear his Spiderman PJ's all day if I will let him. Potty training is actually going very well. I was going to give up until after Caleb is born but he started wanting to do it on his own. I haven't changed a dirty diaper in 5 days. He potties in it most of the time but if he is too busy playing he will go in his diaper. I tell him to wear underwear and he says "no, I need diaper." Whatever. I'm just being relaxed about it until Caleb gets here. I'll go full force after the beginning of the year. I've decided that wearing diapers is way easier anyway. Maybe I'm just being lazy because I'm so tired and sore and I don't want to do anything but lay down. Poor little Ethan!

Work Shower (11/18/07)

Pretty self explanatory...the cake.

Lots of yummy food!

Thanks Nikki and Mandy for organizing my shower!

Wow, look at all of those diapers!

Jenny and Carri, the weekend gals. Both of them are pregnant too!

Gotta have another belly shot. 36 weeks and 2 days...and counting.

Becca.

Katie.

I had my baby shower at work on Sunday. I actually had a better turnout than I thought I would...especially since a lot of them got stuck in Cowboy traffic. Oops. I got a lot of practical gifts. I knew I could cound on my fellow nurses to get me diapers and breastfeeding stuff! We had a lot of fun and it was nice to get together outside of work...although we technically were still in the hospital. We had it in the L&D Triage unit that we NEVER use. Works out well for parties!

In the Home Stretch

I had my Dr. appt. today. I'll be 36 weeks tomorrow. I am dilated to 1cm, thinned out, head low. Yikes! Not that being dilated to 1cm is a huge thing but it's more than I was dilated to a week ago. He (Dr. Dickey) also told me to stop the Brethine because if I went into labor now they wouldn't stop it anyway. I'm still having daily contractions and my pelvis feels like it's snapping in two. Lovely picture. I've got a good waddle going now due to the pelvic pain so I'm loading up on my extra strength Tylenol. I'm sure it will do no good. I didn't sleep well at all last night. I was up every two hours to pee and could hardly walk to the bathroom due to the back pain and pelvic pain. It gets worse when I lay in the same position for too long. I guess I've officially reached the sucky part of being pregnant. I now go for weekly visits to the OB. We'll see how many I make it to.....come on Caleb! (ok, maybe he should stay in for at least another week)

Happy B-Day to Me! 11/12/07

Outside the restaurant...watch out...Big Bertha comin' through!

My smores! You can't tell but there's a little fire in that blue stuff to roast the marshmellows.

My birthday was on Monday. I turned the big 2-9. Only one year left to be young. That's frightening. Mondo gave me the best present ever.....$6. No really, he did. He came home from work with a beautiful flower arrangement and a card. I opened the card and there was $6 in it. He said he found it in his desk at work. Funny. He could hardly contain his laughter. Lucky for him he had more planned for the night. There weren't a lot of options for us to do for my birthday since I'm going to deliver any minute so we opted to go out to dinner. We went to Nine (N9ne). It's an awesome place for steak...and seafood if you like that stuff. It's connected to American Airlines Center. I had a wonderful steak and the best cream corn I've ever eaten..seriously! Mondo and I ate every bite and wanted more. We had my favorite dessert there...smores. It's a fun, contemporary place to go. Too bad we couldn't visit the ghost bar this year. I think people might have looked at me funny there. :-)

Church Shower 11/11/07

This is me eyeing up all the food.

The hostesses. That's Summer on the left in black and Kristy on the right in yellow.

A "Nana" blanket.

Ethan's chair from Caleb's shower. :-)

I had my church baby shower this past Sunday. It was at my friend Kristy's house. She and Summer did a great job coordinating it. I didn't really know what to expect since it was a "second baby" shower but I had a good turn out and got some good stuff. I even got a chair that I registered for that was actually meant for Ethan. Pretty funny. I think the person who bought it knew exactly who it was for. Ethan loves his new chair...and he loves to jump off of it. I got more clothes than I thought I would but plenty of practical things too. At least I feel a bit more prepared than I did last week. I've decided I better back a bag for me and Caleb just in case he really does come early. You would think that I'd done that by now. Where is the time going?!

Frequent Flyer

I figured since I hadn't been to the hospital in the last 5 weeks I should stop in and make a visit. I woke up for work at 5:30am Friday morning feeling really bad. I was so tired and nauseated and contracting already. I spent the whole day at work being completely worthless. I couldn't eat, the Brethine didn't stop the contractions, and they were more painful and in a different spot than usual. I just felt different. I left work early at 6:00pm and decided to go to the hospital. So what happened when I got there you ask? Absolutely nothing! I had a few light contractions spaced out over an hour. I was still dilated to a fingertip. Now I would like to say that I didn't think I was in full blown labor. All of these times I've gone in to the hospital I have been worried that I might be in early labor and it could be stopped if I got there early enough. So now I have vowed to myself that I will not step foot into the hospital unless I am in so much pain I can't breathe or walk. Mondo makes fun of me because I got sent home so many times when I was pregnant with Ethan but just for the record...that was different. I was 38 weeks and had no idea what I was feeling. I now know what a "real" contraction feels like so all of these times I've gone in I was worried about preterm labor. I am now almost 36 weeks and pretty much out of the danger zone for bad things to happen to the baby so hopefully you won't be hearing about another trip to the hospital unless I come out with a baby! By the way, I called in sick for Saturday and slept for 12 hours and felt much better. I guess a lot of it was fatigue. Go figure.

Nesting

Last night I started the infamous "nesting". I'm getting a little freaked out the Caleb is almost here and I have nothing ready. So, I started digging in closets and in the garage for baby stuff. I got the swing together, found the bath tub, lowered the straps on the carseat, found some random baby items, and got the bassinet put together. Of course I had my trusty little helper by my side the whole time. He practiced putting his animals in the swing and car seat. He kept saying "I a helper!" He loves helping me with everything...it's so cute!

Happy Halloween!

Enjoying his Halloween party at school.

On the way to the Harvest Party. He kept the mask and stethescope on for the whole drive.

The bouncy slide. That's Will at the bottom.

He did not want to get off!

Posing for the picture at the Harvest Party.

Playing a golf game...he almost made it in.

Ethan had a good Halloween this year. We started by going to the Harvest Party at church on Saturday. He had lots of fun sliding on the bouncy slide and going in the bouncy house. He could have cared less about playing the games and getting candy. I think we left with 3 pieces of candy that he never ate. On Tuesday he had a Halloween party at school that I missed because I was working. They just ate cookies and punch but I was so sad to miss his first school party. Unfortunately I had to work on Halloween too! I can't wait to start working weekend nights so this won't be an issue. Mondo took him trick-or-treating to a few houses with a couple of his friends. We have no pics though because he didn't have the camera. Then they came home and passed out candy. I got home for the end of that. He had a lot of fun giving out the candy. He would sit and look out the window then run to the door when someone would come. We tried to end the night with getting take out from KFC (he loves those mashed potatoes and mac & cheese) but he didn't stay awake for the drive home. Poor little guy was wiped out. I can't wait for next year when I can be there and it will be Caleb's first Halloween!

34 Week Appointment (may contain a little TMI)

I'm too tired to download and post any pics tonight but I will add some soon. I had my OB appointment today. I actually saw the nurse practioner. She was really good. I woke up yesterday with no voice (I've been fighting a cold or something for 2 weeks). Before she even addressed my pregnancy concerns she said she wanted to look in my ears, nose, and mouth. She thought it was probably a virus since it's been so long and I have no fever and I don't really feel that bad. Now onto the burning questions. I told her that I have daily, consistent, painful contractions that I have to take Brethine for and I thought I lost some of my mucus plug last week. She checked me and said that the outside opening of my cervix was really "floppy", open, and soft and that the inside was dilated to a fingertip. She could also feel the head, not through the cervix but around it. She didn't seem like she thought I was in labor but told me to take it easy and drink lots of fluids...blah, blah, blah. How many times can I hear that speech? So I listened really well and went home and washed the dogs. They were really stinky! So, I've decided that I'm going to have contractions until 40 weeks then be induced because I haven't actually gone into labor. Now I'm off to do my nails because tomorrow night is my 10 year high school reunion. I'm gonna look lovely. I post a pic when I'm all dressed up. Until then......